1. History of Thrillers
Alfred Hitchcock, known as “The Master of Suspense” single handedly pioneered the thriller genre starting with films such as The Lodger (1926) and Blackmail (1929)
He went on to create thrillers over half a decade including classics such as Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958) and Psycho (1960)
Other well known films include Cape Fear (1962), Repulsion (1965) and Frenzy (1972)
Thrillers throughout the 90s became very popular with films such as Silience of the Lambs (1991), Se7en (1995), The Sixth Sense (1999) and The Talented Mr Ripley (1999)
Modern thrillers in the 21st century are still popular featuring films such as The Machinist (2004), Collateral (2004), Inception (2010) and Shutter Island (2010) 1

2. Sub Genres in Thrillers
Crime thrillers feature some sort of criminal and an investigation and are the most popular thrillers currently with films such as Silence of the Lambs and Se7en
Psychological thrillers focus on the mental aspect of the characters and have been around since the beginning of the genre and feature films such as Psycho and Cape Fear
Erotic thrillers can feature love as a key feature in the plot. Eyes Wide Shut and Basic Instinct are examples
Spy thrillers feature spies usually from government agents as a main part of the plot. Hanna and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy are examples.
Other lesser known sub genres are Political thrillers, legal thrillers, comedy thrillers, conspiracy thrillers and supernatural thrillers 2

3. Narrative conventions
Thrillers will almost always include some sort of crime happening, usually being committed by the antagonist.
The various themes amongst crime may include spies, murder, terrorism and many others
All thriller films generally provide thrills and suspense to keep the audience at the edge of their seats as the film progresses to the climax. One way of doing this is by having lots of false leads, clues and possible outcomes creating uncertainty throughout the film.
Thrillers create feelings of excitement, tension, anxiety, fear and suspense. 3

4. Characters
The protagonist or heroes of the films are not usually too special in anyway and are a lot of the time just regular people. They are resourceful and persistent in completing their goals and the audience is always on their side. Detectives, police officers and spies are often jobs of protagonists.
Thrillers will almost always have an antagonist. Often not much is known about the antagonist, having the characters discover at the same time as the audience. Again, they are usually normal people in the sense that they don't have any special powers but they are usually smart, cunning and psychotic.
Other characters in thriller films maybe be love interests, usually a female to the male lead dominated genre that may develop throughout the film and end with them being together at the end. Sidekicks are those that help the main characters achieve their goals, usually a close companion, although subordinate. Sidekicks may also be the love interest at the same time. 4

5. Mise-en-scene
Lighting levels are usually low and colours are dark in thrillers to create fear and tension and atmosphere
Music will generally start with a slow tempo and get more intense as the film gets more exciting
Very natural costume and make up relative to the time period, job and social class that the film is set in is the norm for thrillers
Typical thriller settings are in usually in densely populated cities which is a normal location for most audience members, relating to them directly.
Props in thrillers are often weapons such as guns and knives. Other props based on crimes may be torches, money and masks. As well as this, there are items that show how the characters live such as cars, clothing and jewellery 5

6. Sound
Like in all films, sound is used to enhance emotions and create the general mood of the scene.
In thriller films, music is used to create and enhance the feelings of tension, anxiety, suspense and fear. Often times the music is created by orchestral instruments.
Jaws is an iconic film that used music to great effect to create the feeling of suspense and has one of the most famous soundtracks in film.
Correctly timed sound effects can cause fear as well as set mood of the scene although silence is often used in thrillers to build tension.
Diegetic sound is sound that appears in frame, most commonly dialogue but can also be various sound of a door closing or tyres screeching.
Non-diegetic is sound that is added in post production such as narration, sound effects and music.

7. Cinematography
An establishing shot shows the audience where the story is happening, usually the first shot and as a wide or extreme wide shot, however in thrillers they don’t use establishers as often so the audience keeps guessing about the characters and locations.
Mid shot- The actors waist and upwards. A very common shot and a good shot at showing body language.
Medium Close up – Shows the face and chest. You see more detail in what the actors are wearing and their facial expressions but doesn’t show the characters face as close as a close up.
Close up – Used to show the intensity of emotions. The more closer you get to someone, physically the more closer you feel to them, this is good to connect the audience with the character and this helps you feel the intensity of the emotions. Thrillers try to get the audience to have a psychological experience and this helps them do that.
Extreme Close up – Shows very high detail, often of parts of the face to give an enhanced view of emotions or of an important object. These are good as they point out the important parts for the audience to focus on and as it doesn’t show the whole image it makes the audience question who is it? why? So this idea for thriller would be useful as you can show a persons characteristics but still keeping their identity hidden. E.g. In the ‘Se7en’ opening title sequence *video clip* We see extreme/close-ups of the antagonist but the detail in his hands and how they are dirty and various items that tell a lot about a character
P.O.V shot – You see through the eyes of the character, could be the antagonist or the protagonist. You get a sense of how they are feeling as they are involved with something emotional e.g. If the shot is unsteady/shaky shows their insecure and scared
High angle and Low angle shot– The high angle provides a view from above making the character look small, venerable and weak as you are towering over them. These are used in thrillers because the positioning of the camera can convey the power in relationships between characters. The Low angle does the same but looking up e.g. Could show a P.O.V shot from a character looking up at someone so that they look dominant. It empathises positions within a narrative.
Pan – The camera moves horizontal on the tripod, often on tracks, it can be effective in thrillers if done slowly as it builds suspense and its good at revealing action slowly or revealing a murder.

8. Editing
Editing is an element of the post-production part of filmmaking and is the placing of different shots together.
Continuity editing – creates a series of different shots and have them put together so make sense with each other making the editing unnoticeable and the audience immersed in the action, it creates a sense of story for the viewer.
180 degree rule – in a scene the camera can only go on one side of the scene. This is done so that the audience don’t get disorientated and they are immersed into the film. Sometimes in thrillers they break this rule on purpose to make the audience feel uncomfortable.
Parallel editing/ Cross cutting – Cutting back and fourth quickly between two different action and settings. It gives the illusion that these two events are happening at the same time. This is used in the film ‘Silent of the Lambs’ Parallel Editing in this film it’s used to create suspense and tension as it makes the audience believe they are going to catch the antagonist.
Eye-Line-Match – When the camera follows the eyes of one of the characters on screen, they could be looking at an object or person.
Shot Reverse Shot – It shows both the character facing each other and then shows shots of one of the characters looking left and the other character looking right, so the audience assume that they are talking to each other.